A smart water solution for Karnataka’s farmers

Kiran Zehra

DG Gaurish Dhond inaugurating the project in the presence of (on his left) Shivajirao Kagnikar, (behind) club president Milind Patankar, secretary Laxmikant Netalkar, club members and beneficiaries.

Power humare haat mein hain (We have power),” says Arun Krishna, a 29-year-old-farmer from Mahalenahatti village, 15km from Belgaum in Karnataka. “We had to depend on electricity to pump water to irrigate our fields,” but after RC Belgaum, RID 3170, installed the Smart Aqua Net, a 10kWp solarpowered system for irrigation, “we can work from 7am to 6pm. Unlike the times when we had no clue when the electricity would come. Sometimes the electricity would come at midnight and we would run to our fields and work in the darkness,” he says.

Project chairman and president of RC Belgaum, Milind Patankar says that the farmers have lived here for generations. “They depend on rain for agriculture and grow one crop a year (either paddy or maize) and post-harvest, the farmers would migrate to nearby cities and work as labourers for the rest of the year, struggling to make ends meet.”

Krishna’s father who is also a farmer “never wanted me to come to the field. He sent me to college and after I got degree, I took up a job. I always wanted to do farming, researched organic farming and realised I could help my father in so many ways.” He quit his job after four years and went back home “but I was not welcome. My father said that I was getting on a sinking ship and that my life would become miserable. I wasn’t willing to change my decision and began working towards my dream.”

On a trial basis, he started growing chilly, carrots and

potatoes. But irrigating the land was a huge challenge. Meanwhile, RC Belgaum was looking to start a new water and sanitation project when Patankar met Shivajirao Kagnikar, a social worker, who told him about the plight of the farmers.

The club struck a technical partnership with Sun Moksha Power, a Bengaluru-based company that develops and deploys clean and sustainable technology solutions and provides consulting services for rural development and urban sustainability. “We wanted to demonstrate a sustainable model before scaling it up for other farmers and villages,” says Patankar. Kagnikar helped the farmers understand that Rotarians “wanted nothing in return for the help being offered.” The first model was set up on 26 acres of land belonging to 14 farmers, six of them women.

Patankar points out that the smart irrigation model “recommends and delivers the right quantity of water based on the soil, atmospheric and hydrological conditions, and increases productivity for every litre of water. It promotes shared irrigation and ensures maximum utilisation of irrigation resources and equitable distribution of water to the marginal farmers.”

This automated water management is based on real-time data from the sensors and meters communicating with the cloud network. This helps to conserve and optimise water usage for irrigation, and also ensures a sustainable business model wherein farmers are billed for the water they consume. This infrastructure allows all the stakeholders to monitor the performance of the system remotely and get regular reports on individual farmer’s water consumption, billing and collection.

“The collected money is deposited into the bank account held and operated by the village water committee, Krishidhan Sahayogi Sangha, Mahalenahatti. This money will be used to maintain the system and scale the project. The farmers have also received basic troubleshooting and maintenance training.

The availability of water throughout the year means that Lakshmi’s husband doesn’t have to leave to the city to work at a hotel. “It feels like finally our prayers have been answered,” says the woman farmer who now doesn’t have to “slog and carry the load of heavy farming equipment alone.”

The project was inaugurated in the last week of March by DG Gaurish Dhond in the presence of Kagnikar, club president Patankar, secretary Laxmikant Netalkar, other members of the club, beneficiaries, and the village community.

A woman farmer operating the Smart Aqua Net.

RC Nagpur inaugurates Vocational Training Centre RC Bhusawal Tapti Valley holds memory workshop for students

RC Nagpur, now 77-year-old, has set up a Vocational Skills Training Centre at the Providence School Annexe, Civil Lines, Nagpur. DG Ramesh Meher inaugurated the vocational centre in a gala ceremony on Feb 23.

The skill centre is a first-of-its-kind in collaboration with the ICICI Foundation with the aim towards inclusive growth, thanks to the CSR wing of ICICI Bank Ltd. While the club is extending its premises, the ICICI Foundation will provide the faculty, training and placements. Electrical and Home Appliances Repair course (EHA) will be imparted to less privileged children who are looking for a vocation to earn gainful employment. The EHA course will train a batch of 60 students every quarter beginning from May 2022. The programme will train around 150–250 students in EHA every year and would be provided jobs with the efforts of the Foundation.

This will be the first EHA batch to be trained by the ICICI Foundation in partnership with the club. DG Meher praised the services of RC Nagpur as through this project 150–250 students from the economically weaker section of the society will get employed each year.

He expressed satisfaction that such a skilling project was being inaugurated on the Foundation Day of Rotary International. Sushmita Chuckerbutty, centre head, ICICI Academy for Skills, Nagpur, attended the programme and expressed her happiness over starting a unique centre in this city jointly with Rotary. Memory master trainer Dr Bhagwan Gadhe urged the students to adopt various tricks to memorise their subjects. While rhymes and pictures are found in plenty in the books of Classes 1–5, these are reduced and paragraphs increase from Classes 6–8.

Addressing students at a special workshop, Dr Gadhe said they should focus on comprehension and extemporisation, rather than rote learning. The workshop was organised jointly by RC Bhusawal Tapti Valley and the Chate English Medium School. He demonstrated how to memorise the words and remember phone numbers which will be useful in our daily life. He listed various plans with solutions to tackle problems in subject study.

Around 4,000 students took part in the study workshop. Dr Gadhe advised the parents to guide their children on proper ways to memorise their subjects. Dr Sanju Bhatkar, president, RC Bhusawal Tapti Valley, said that as students have lost nearly two years of schooling due to the pandemic, some have dropped out of mainstream education due to many reasons. They were learning through online over the last two years, but this is not the proper way and students have to attend classes in regular schools for good education. Club treasurer Sunil Wankhede gave the vote of thanks.

Sewing Training Centre at Kalwan

To provide a secure livelihood source to disadvantaged women, RC Kalwan joined hands with the Jankai Madhyamik Vidyalaya to start a Sewing Training Centre with the support of Singer Machine India Ltd. Jankai Sanstha chairman Chandrakant Kothavade led this project.

DG Ramesh Meher, Surgana MLA Nitin Pawar and RC Kalwan president Nilesh Bhamre were present at the inaugural ceremony of the tailoring centre. Rtn Vilas Shirore gave a presentation on the work done by Rotary in this project. MLA Nitin Pawar appreciated the work and dedication of the club. Women can become self-reliant after getting trained at this sewing class, he said, and expressed his readiness to help any project that empowered women. Club president Bhamre said the project would be sustained for five years.

He said it will provide self-employment to hundreds of women through modern fashion designing lessons at a reasonable fee. There are 21 machines available in the centre to train women and those who have completed the three-month course will be given a government-approved certificate. The Singer company will give the pass-out candidates with a sewing machine at a 50 per cent discount.

A galaxy of local officials, Rotarians, social activists, teachers, academicians, sewing class instructors and Inner Wheel club members took part at the inaugural ceremony.

RC Nasik City hosts ‘Jeevan Urja’ RYLA

Jeevan Urja, a five-day RYLA, was organised by RC Nasik City for 45 NSS girls of ITI Girls College with DG Ramesh Meher inaugurating the youth programme. The RYLA was organised at the Laxman Pada, Trimbak, wherein the participants trained the Adivasi girls in beauty parlour, electrical and sewing courses.

Also, basic defence techniques, rangoli and drawing skills were imparted to tribal girls by student participants. The programme showcased human values and the club plans to lay at least 5km approach road to this tribal hamlet with the help of villagers. The club’s vocational director Madhav, secretary Kiran, Rtns Chokani, Naresh and Amol were present at the closing session of Jeevan Urja.

The RYLA teams gave basic training on sewing machine to 10 girls; beauty parlour course was taught to another 10 girls; and electrical wiring skills were imparted to 15 beneficiaries. The club donated 10 sewing machine kits, two sewing machines, 10 beauty parlour kits and 10 basic electrical kits to Adivasi girls. Rotarians urged the beneficiaries to be financially independent through self-employment. A group of female doctors from Bosch company engaged the girls on menstrual hygiene which brought the curtains down on an eventful Jeevan Urja.

Tiger cubs play water polo

Sanjay Danait

My journey in wildlife photography began in 2006. I have visited the Project Tiger forests — Kanha, Nagarhole, Pench, Nagzira, Navegaon, Ranthambore, Bandhavgarh and Tadoba, all national parks and tiger reserves — as the big cat is my most favourite animal. However, Bandhavgarh, Pench, and Tadoba remain my favourite forests, because of the opportunities for the sighting of tigers and the diversity of the forests. Tiger sighting is a very tricky thing in the forest. You require some amount of luck along with a professional guide and photography gear. I have been blessed with some memorable sightings in Bandhavgarh National Park and that’s why Bandhavgarh is my most preferred forest. Some of my Bandhavgarh memories, captured in my camera, have won me many prestigious International and National Awards in Nature and Wildlife Photography.

The wait

During my visit to Bandhavgarh in May 2019, we got news that a tigress called Dotty and her cubs were seen roaming in the Magadhi zone. Therefore, in my next safari, I decided to visit that area. It was summer and I had high hopes of seeing the tigress and her cubs or some other predators visiting the waterhole to quench their thirst or to just cool off.

As we started our safari early at 6 am, we began to hear some alarm calls of deers and Grey Langurs

(monkeys). The calls were getting stronger and stronger; so we decided to wait near a waterhole in the Magadhi area. But after a while, the alarm calls stopped completely. For almost half an hour, we could not sight any predator. The other safari Gypsies started to leave the spot.

But I had decided to try my luck. I told my guide and the driver not to move anywhere; no matter even if we drew a blank. Luckily, they agreed and we sat quietly watching the thickets and bushes around the waterhole.

As I had woken up at 4 that morning, after an hour’s wait, my ears and eyes had begun to give up. I was almost dozing off when suddenly, my guide poked me saying: Saab, andar kuch movement hote sunai de raha hai… taiyyar rehna! (Some movement is happening, be ready). As he spoke, we began to hear the alarm calls again, especially from the langurs. There was massive movements in the bushes and the shrieks grew louder. I became alert; ready with my finger on the camera trigger… and within minutes, we witnessed a tigress coming towards the waterhole, along with her three gorgeous cubs.

Dotty emerges with her cubs

Here in front of our eyes was Dotty with her cubs! The cubs were sub-adults, almost 14–15 months old, and were in a playful mood. While coming towards the waterhole, one of them had hunted a langur. That explained why the alarm calls were so frantic, especially by the langurs.

The hunter-cub was jubilant and proudly showing off his trophy to the other members of the family. Soon their mother Dotty, who was not keen to enter the waterhole, decided to take a nap behind a tree. And that opened the floodgates for the cubs to freak out in the waterhole. All three were enjoying their playtime and the hunter began the ‘catch-my-trophy-if-you-can’

game with the other cubs. It was a terrific show, which appeared to me as if a water polo game was going on.

There were mock fights and the entire waterhole area became a sports arena. Boxing, wrestling, racing, punching, chasing… it was sheer delight to the eyes of any photographer. I tried to freeze some of these unforgettable moments on my camera. This turned out to be one of my best sightings ever.

By the time the show ended, I had finished half of my camera’s memory card. I will surely visit Bandhavgarh in the future. But will I ever witness such an awesome sighting again? I doubt it. The writer is a member of RC Koregaon Park, RID 3131